This is the first in a series about Hope Jones. Hope’s job as a photographer doing romance novel covers could be construed as the lush life, but Hope will beg to differ because she can’t seem to produce a cover that the publisher’s star author seems to like. She’ll be lucky if she can keep her job. I wasn’t expecting such a banger (no pun intended) of an introduction. I thought Bello would ease us into Hope and her life, but no, she brings it straight to the heart of the matter. I gotta say that I like it, I like it a lot.

Hope is what I like to call a hot mess. She’s not really sure what she’s doing and the inner monologue makes her that much more likable – she’s witty and sarcastic. Waking up one day to the trial of finding a male model so she can take some scintillating pictures, Hope goes to the local Wal-Mart looking for painkillers to fend off that headache she’s working on. While she’s isle hopping, she meets Drew. Bingo! Perfect Wal-Mart experience: you walk in for one thing and walk out with something a little extra. Now all Hope has to do is make sure that Drew shows up for the photo shoot.

In the parking lot her trusty steed, okay it’s really a Ford Taurus, has decided that Hope needs to find another way home. Once she gets her car over to the Tire and Lube Express area, she meets hunkalicious #2, Jake Troy. Turns out that Jake remembers Hope from high school and from what happens later, that’s not a bad thing. The chemistry between these two was really good. Jake is a flirt and he knows it, but I’m not convinced (yet) that he’s a player, just a guy who knows what he wants. There’s a vibe that there are things that Jake is not giving away this early in the game and I can’t wait to find out what they are in the next story.

I had couple of time related issues – I’m not sure of Hope’s age, it’s either 37 or 26. I’m hoping it’s 26 because that would make sense and but some of the (Def Leppard/Van Halen) concerts mentioned wouldn’t. Maybe it’s the version I received?

Suffice it to say, that didn’t take away from the story enough that I didn’t enjoy it because I did and will be reading the others in the series. Be warned, this does not have an HEA or HFN.